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Bumble is increasing its investments in AI and branching out with new features to stay relevant amid a generational shift in dating behavior among younger users. During Goldman Sachs’ annual technology conference on Monday, Bumble CEO Lidiane Jones unveiled more details about the app’s upcoming AI capabilities, including a photo selection tool as well as features to help with conversations and profile creation.
Jones previously teased the features in Bumble’s latest earnings presentation.
During a call with investors, she said, “We will also introduce new AI-driven features, including an AI-assisted photo picker to ease the profile creation process and conversation support that will help our customers gain confidence to be their best selves. We have an ambitious view of how AI will enhance the value we deliver to our customers in each step of the dating journey for profile creation, discovery, engagement, and the core of our matching models.”
The new AI-powered features are launching on the app this winter.
Bumble’s photo picker tool will put it in closer competition with Tinder, which released its AI “Photo Selector” feature this summer, providing users with suggested selfies taken from their camera roll. Tinder currently touts 9.6 million paying users, whereas Bumble has 2.8 million users as of Q2 2024.
Based on yesterday’s comments made by Jones, the company suggests it’s also working on additional tools to help with profile creation, but didn’t go into specific detail.
“We want the bar for profile creation to continue to be high, but we want to reduce the friction that it exists for users. Users have a lot of anxiety in creating profiles. We’re going to make that as smooth as possible. So profile creation is a big one,” Jones noted during the conference.
There’s more than just uploading photos that go into making a profile; users must also come up with a compelling bio and prompts to attract potential matches. How Bumble plans to power this experience with AI for now remains unclear. Bumble didn’t respond to our request for comment.
If Bumble were to launch additional AI profile creation features, the company may copy a feature from Tinder’s future product roadmap. Tinder CPO Mark Van Ryswyk once mentioned the idea of using generative AI to write bios for dating profiles.
Bumble for Friends has an AI-generated icebreaker feature that helps users write messages. Image Credits: Bumble
Additionally, using AI to encourage singles to be more creative with their opening lines feels like a no-brainer for Bumble. Last year, the company released an AI-generated icebreaker feature for Bumble for Friends, its friendship-focused product, so it would make sense if the dating app rolled out a similar feature. With the icebreaker feature, users can generate messages based on the other person’s profile.
Jones said, “[Another] big factor is customers are much happier and successful, and they engage in healthy conversations with each other. So, we want to provide more support for people to enter healthy conversations.”
In addition to the newly announced AI features, we may expect Bumble to expand its AI approach further in the future. Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd previously shared that her idea of online dating could see AI “dating concierges” or assistants going on numerous dates on a user’s behalf.
Meanwhile, Bumble has been using AI to power its safety features for a few years now. For instance, its “Deception Detector” tool detects and removes fake profiles, spammers, and scammers, and its “Private Detector” feature automatically blurs nude photos. More recently, the company introduced a new option that lets members report profiles if they believe the photos and videos are generated with the use of AI.
Jones reiterated at the conference that Bumble is holding off on launching any new paid features as it continues to improve the free experience. This includes expanding “Opening Moves,” adding more interest filters and customizations for its chat timer (which currently only gives users 24 hours to send a message), as well as making improvements to its matching algorithm.
The company also has plans for the recently acquired community platform Geneva, which is gearing up for a relaunch in late fall.
